''MacCormick v Lord Advocate'' 1953 SC 396 was a

Scottish constitutional law Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland ...

case and Scottish legal action on whether Queen Elizabeth II was entitled to use the numeral "II" as her regnal number in Scotland, as there had never been an earlier Elizabeth reigning in Scotland.

Facts

John MacCormick (the Rector of the University of Glasgow) and Ian Hamilton (then part of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association) contested the right of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

to style herself 'Elizabeth II' within Scotland. They claimed it was a breach of the

Act of Union 1707 The Acts of Union ( gd, Achd an Aonaidh) were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act 1707 passed by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the te ...

between England and Scotland, since Elizabeth I had been

Queen of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...

but not of Scotland. The action was brought against the Crown, which was represented by the Lord Advocate, who is the most senior law officer in Scotland.

Judgment

The petition first came before Lord Guthrie, sitting as

Lord Ordinary A Lord Ordinary is any judge in the Outer House The Outer House (abbreviated as CSOH in neutral citations) is one of the two parts of the Scottish Court of Session, which is the supreme civil court in Scotland. It is a court of first inst ...

in the Outer House (the court of first instance in the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

). He dismissed it; this was appealed to the Inner House. The appeal was heard by the Lord President (

Lord Cooper of Culross Thomas Mackay Cooper, 1st Baron Cooper of Culross (24 September 1892 – 15 July 1956) was a Scottish Unionist Party politician, a judge and a historian, who had been appointed Lord Advocate of Scotland. Background and education Cooper was t ...

), Lord Carmont, and Lord Russell. There, MacCormick and Hamilton lost their case: it was held that the treaty had no provision concerning the

numbering of monarchs Regnal numbers are ordinal numbers used to distinguish among persons with the same name who held the same office. Most importantly, they are used to distinguish monarchs. An ''ordinal'' is the number placed after a monarch's regnal name to diffe ...

—it was part of the royal prerogative, and that they had no title to sue the Crown. The Lord President did give his opinion that "the principle of unlimited

sovereignty of Parliament Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all ...

is a distinctively English principle and has no counterpart in

". The case was thus constitutionally interesting as "the Lord Advocate conceded this point by admitting that the Parliament of the United Kingdom 'could not' repeal or alter ertain'fundamental and essential' conditions" of the Act of Union. However, the Lord President also held that "there is neither precedent nor authority of any kind for the view that the domestic Courts of either Scotland or England have jurisdiction to determine whether a governmental act of the type here in controversy is or is not conform to the provisions of a Treaty" and "it has not been shown that the Court of Session has authority to entertain the issue sought to be raised".

Significance

The outcome of this case has had continuing relevance, most notably in 1999, when the British Parliament discussed the creation of the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

. It has been discussed in a number of later decisions of the courts, notably ''Gibson v Lord Advocate'' 1975 SC 136, and the English case of ''Jackson v Attorney General'',

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

3 WLR 733.

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

suggested that British sovereigns would use either the English or the Scottish number, whichever was higher.

Notes

External links

* Hansard for the House of Lords from 1999 discussing the case: ** ** {{DISPLAYTITLE:''MacCormick v Lord Advocate'' British monarchy Political history of Scotland Scottish royalty Constitution of the United Kingdom 1953 in British law Court of Session cases 1953 in case law United Kingdom administrative case law United Kingdom constitutional case law Royal prerogative University of Glasgow Scottish nationalism Coronation of Elizabeth II

Facts

Judgment

Significance

See also

Notes

External links